La Tomatina in Buñol

One of the crazy fiestas that they celebrate in this neck of the woods is the world-renowned La Tomatina which takes place tomorrow - it's always on the last Wednesday of August.

If you haven´t heard of it, it may sound crazy but its a big tomato fight!  The main event is where a dumpster-like lorry drives through the town square and surrounding streets with people in the back who throw over 40 tonnes-worth of over-ripe tomatoes at the participants on the streets.  The roads look like rivers of tomato juice and everyone is covered top to toe in it.

The fiestas begin the night before with the traditional feria in the town where drinking and dancing go on until the wee hours.  The next day, the town gives out pastries to those who don't suffer too bad a hangover and then El Palo Jabón (the soap stick) is signalled to start.  A greased-up pole with a jamón (ham) at the top is erected and people try to climb up it to reach the prize.  The tomato battle can't start until someone has reached the jamón so everyone is desperate to have a go.  When the meat has been met by one lucky and probably very sticky person, the water canons fire into the air to signal the start of the tomato frenzy.  For an hour, people are drenched in squashed tomatoes and are loving it.

History

The fiesta is said to have been conceived when in 1945 a group of youngsters wanted to take part in the gigantes and cabezudos fiesta staging a brawl in the town square, the Plaza del Pueblo.  Tomatoes were the first thing to hand as there was a vegetable stand nearby. Police had to break up the fight and the participants had to pay for the damage.

The following year on the same Wednesday, the youngsters did the same thing but this time they brought their own tomatoes from home.  Once again, the police had to stop the fight but after some years of the same thing happening the tradition was established.  Although there were various attempts to stop the tomato fight since then, in 1957 the fiesta became official and some basic rules and regulations being implemented.

Each year, the local people brought their own tomatoes to the festival but in 1980 the town hall took charge of the organisation and the supply of tomatoes, which come from the other side of Spain where the tomatoes are especially grown for this event.

Limited entry

The town of Buñol is about 35km inland from Valencia.  The actual town has just over 9,000 residents but on this one day each year about 5 times that amount descend on the town to take part in the activities.  This is the first year that the town hall want to organise the fiesta better to make it safe for all.  What with trucks, tonnes of tomatoes and sticky poles anything could happen.  So they are limiting entrance to the town centre for the tomato fight to 20,000 people - 5,000 tickets are sold to local residents and the rest are available for everyone else.  There is a 10€ charge for a ticket which you exchange in the town for a wrist band and you will have to be very quick to get yours as they sold out very quickly this year for tomorrow's event.  Good luck for next year!

Tomatina take-off

The Tomatina fiesta has inspired others all over the world to stage their own version, from the City of Reno in the USA to Dongguan in China and even a scene that mimics the event in the 6th installment of the saga Tekken fighting game by Namco.  It seems that everyone loves a good old food fight!

Summer moon over Alicante castle

It is a relatively fresh night here in Alicante giving us respite from the long, hot days.  So we just went out for a ride on the motorbike and ended up at the castle overlooking Alicante city.  The sky was cloudy for once and looked quite moody so I got my camera out.  Is it a full moon tonight?  It looked quite 'round' to me.

The castle in Alicante (Castillo Santa Barbara) is free to get in and there is parking at the top so if you fancy just heading up there to sit at the bar and check out the views, then it's a great thing to do.  If you don't have transport then there is an elevator that takes you right to the top but you have to pay for the service.  You can also walk up but it's a very steep climb and certainly not recommended in the midday sun!

I will post more about the castle, its history and what you can do there another day but for now I will just leave you with some photos I took from the castle this evening.

August fiesta day in Alicante - Asunción de la Virgin María

Today is a holiday or fiesta in Alicante which commemorates the day that the Virgin Mary died and rose to heaven.  (You can read more about it in Spanish here).  I'm pretty sure that years ago there were processions through the streets and special events happening so that the devotees could honour the Virgin and there may well be some going on in some other parts of Spain.

But nowadays, as people go to church less and less, and many people do not follow the Catholic religion as strictly as before, this fiesta day today, in the middle of August, is mostly an excuse to close up shop:

and go down to the beach:

This was what people were doing in Alicante today.
The photo above is of the beach of San Juan, or playa de San Juan. It's a wonderful beach that is 7km long which is why there is space for everyone to place their towel on the shoreline.  It looks empty in this photo but it is just so long.  I will devote a post to it soon because there is lots to say about it.

Misterí d'Elx

The Elx Mystery is a play held on the 14th and 15th of August each year in the Basilica de Santa María in the city of Elche commemorating the Assumption of Mary.  The origins of the play date back to the 15th Century and in 2001, was declared by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.  FYI, 'Elx' is Elche in the Valencian language.

Nit de l'Albà

One of the other attractions of the fiestas at the moment in Elche is the Nit de l'Albà (the night of 'white' or 'having a white colour') which takes place on 13th of August each year. From 11pm until just before midnight, palmeras (big fireworks that look like a palm tree when exploded) are set off from various points of the city.  This idea started in the Middle Ages when each rocket was an offering to the Virgin Mary for each child in the family.

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Just before midnight, all the firework activity stops and the city lights are turned off ready for the moment of la Gloria. The hugely enormous white-coloured palmera de la Virgin is fired into the sky above Elche from the Basilica lighting everything up for a few seconds.  When the lights come back on, a small Virgin de fuego can be seen in the tower of the Basilica while the locals sing from their balconies and terraces.  Then the night is ended for some by eating copious amounts of watermelon!

For others, the guerra de carretillas starts and goes on until the early hours.   All you safety-concious ('normal') people run and hide because in this 'war of wheelbarrows' a dedicated area is set up where a number of people dress up in special jumpsuits protecting their faces, hands and feet and throw crazy fireworks at each other!  Yes, you read it right.  They THROW fireworks at each other!  Wheelbarrow is the name of the type of firework.  People get injured every year with burns when some fireworks get caught in their clothing.  Not surprising.

I don't know what it is with the Valencian community but they absolutely LOVE fireworks. The louder, the bigger and the more dangerous the better.  Any fiesta there is around here is guaranteed to include a firework display.  Every now and again I hear fireworks and firecrackers going off randomly in the distance and know that someone, somewhere is having a fiesta!

It's too hot for flowers!

Yes, literally.
I was speaking to a chap who comes to Alicante on business occasionally and he said that you can tell that Alicante has a female Mayor (or Mayoress) because there are flowers everywhere!

I have to agree with him.  There are just too many flowers.  In the photo above you can see that they have recently covered the entrance to one of the main car parks in the Plaza de la Montañeta in wild flowers, reminiscent of what you would see in an English country garden.  Maybe one has friends who own garden shops?

When there are not many florists in the city and giving flowers is not a regular custom, you know that the climate doesn't permit the delicacy of flowers.  It's just too hot.  Here is a typical weather forecast for the Alicante summertime:

It's been like that for weeks and will be like it for more to come.  Hardly a drop of rain. So when they make these plant and flower installations they have to put in a really good irrigation system or this will happen:

When they do put a line next to every plant, this is the result:

And goodness knows how much all this extra watering is costing the city, and inevitably us in our taxes! Alicante has a humid climate but not in that it falls from the sky, just that it's brought in on the Mediterranean sea breeze.  If you drive out of the city you will see what the type of land is really like here - yellowish, dusty, rocky, with some pine trees on the shady sides of the hills.  There are other solutions to ensure some greenery in this quite dry landscape though: fake grass.  They installed some on the road next to the beach in sections with metal borders and stones.  It doesnt look that bad and its easier to maintain.

Also, there are quite a few trees that provide us with a nice display of flowers annually and they are really practical in that they provide us with shade.  More trees please Mayoress!

I have the sun all afternoon in my patio and find it difficult to grow and maintain anything that is green other than the hardiest of cacti.  Also, I just don't have green fingers so I'll leave it to the professionals while I sit by the piscina (pool)!

Tiger in Alicante

I'd never heard of the shop Tiger until one was opened up recently in the centre of Alicante (sorry to those who thought I was going to post about a REAL tiger loose on the streets of Alicante!).  They picked a prime location in the Plaza de los Luceros (where the mascletá fires off from during the Hogueras festival in June) to launch its store in Alicante.

Its a colourful store full of great value gifts, toys, home accessories, stationery and even food snacks and drink!  There's not a huge choice of shops in Alicante for a city of this size so it's great to see a store like this here.  Being from the UK, which is a consumer paradise, I do miss the selection of shops and products available.  Thank goodness for internet shopping!

I think that the stock changes quite frequently in Tiger so here is a pick of my favourite items from my last visit.

Colourful boxes

Bunny lamp

Chocolate milk

Green tea

Darjeeling

Music box that plays 'Happy Birthday to You!'